


Ciel Phantomhive, Trancy Toy

by shotaku



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:40:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28175565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shotaku/pseuds/shotaku
Summary: Ciel wakes up in a bed that is not his own and finds that Alois Trancy simply takes what he wants.
Relationships: Ciel Phantomhive & Alois Trancy, Ciel Phantomhive/Alois Trancy
Comments: 8
Kudos: 47





	1. His Butler, Missing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ciel goes looking for Sebastian and finds Alois instead.

Ciel awoke at the usual time despite Sebastian’s failure to wake him as he usually does. For a demon, Sebastian was quite gentle - perhaps even loving - when waking Ciel. He would run his warm hands along the length of Ciel’s body with every touch feeling like a full embrace as though just one of Sebastian’s hands could reach fully around Ciel’s body, capable of comforting or crushing him at Sebastian’s will. 

Ciel did not trust those hands that could so easily kill so much as he relied on the power of the contract between them to stay Sebastian’s hand. Ciel knew that in reality, he was already dead but for the purpose for which he lived and that Sebastian would soon be unrestrained. Until then, Ciel could enjoy whetting Sebastian’s appetite for the meal that he could not yet eat.

This morning though, Sebastian was not present. Although bound by contract to a demon, Ciel was still a young teenage boy - particularly upon waking each morning. Ciel did not know what to do next. That was Sebastian’s job. So pathetically dependent was Ciel that he could not find the secret to removing the well-tucked sheet from his bed, and the fine quilt proved too heavy for him to carry around. So, Ciel took one of the pillows and holding it in front of himself as his only article of clothing, proceeded down the hall outside his bedroom in search of Sebastian.

As he walked, Ciel felt somehow not at home. Phantomhive Manor was only a house to him - a borrowed place where he lived his life on borrowed time. But this was different. There, on one of the intricately carved balusters was a stray mark as though made by a child with a foil. Along the floor and barely perceptible were light scuff marks in the character of heeled shoes which Ciel thought must have been worn by someone no larger than himself. Up in the corner, spanned a solitary spider’s web.

“Sebastian would never allow such careless housekeeping,” Ciel muttered to himself, his quick mind working out the logic of his situation. “Sebastian clearly is not here, but more than that - here is not where I am supposed to be. Alois Trancy!”

As if summoned by the sound of his name, an impish laugh came from behind Ciel. Wheeling around, Ciel covered his previously exposed backside with the pillow and then realized that having turned to face Alois, his front side was now fully exposed.

“Aww, Ciel. You figured it out too quickly.” Alois approached Ciel confidently as he spoke, even as Ciel backed away until he reached the wall behind him. “But I was having loads of fun watching you. Do you always wander around friends’ houses this way? I always knew we would become great friends!”

The boy cheerfully prattled on, until he had Ciel in an embrace as though Ciel were his long lost brother. With nothing more than a pillow and Alois’ tight shorts between them Alois slid his hands down Ciel’s back, grasping his prize firmly with both hands.

Pushing him away, Ciel barked, “Alois! What game is this? Where am I”

“Well, you’re at my place, of course. I had Claude retrieve you while you slept.” Alois leaned against the wall next to Ciel as though nothing unusual at all had happened. “I also had him remake this part of the house to look like yours. It’s funny how making a thing less confusing can lead to greater confusion, isn’t it? Of course, I would be an entirely unsatisfactory host if I had let you sleep under my warm sheets with those horrible bedclothes of yours. How can anyone -“

Ciel was struggling to keep up with the boy’s random sequence of thoughts spoken aloud, but that last bit seemed worthy of being seized upon for further explanation. “Alois Trancy!” Ciel spoke slowly but firmly. “Do you mean to say I slept like this under your warm sheets in your warm bed? And where, exactly, did you sleep?”

“Oh, I slept in my bed as well,” Alois said nonchalantly as though it were an irrelevant detail. Suddenly though, he turned to face Ciel with apparent understanding. “Why Ciel, do you fear that I took your bedclothes for nefarious purposes - to wear them for my own enjoyment while you slept? Fear not! I never wear clothes when I sleep, and oftentimes when I’m awake. I see that we are alike in this.” Here, he tweaked Ciel’s nose annoyingly and then walked back in the direction of his bedroom, calling on Ciel to follow as a jumble of words continued to flow from his lips in torrents.

Ciel cursed Sebastian who he believed was watching this unfold with amusement. He had half a thought to throw himself over the banister, forcing Sebastian to come save him and return him to solitary peace and blessed silence. But Sebastian would enjoy carrying him to safety. He would smile his wry smile, and the hunger would appear in his eyes and cloud his judgement, and the contract between them would be silent on this matter which meant that Ciel would have no control over what happened next. No, Ciel’s choices were to be savored like a fine dinner by Sebastian or to be toyed with like a plaything by Alois Trancy. 

At least being a plaything had the advantage of being new and different. And besides, as much as he hated Alois’ demented silliness, there was something intriguing and perhaps even alluring about him. It is said that opposites attract each other, but that is not quite right. If opposites are unequal, the stronger will always attract the weaker like a moth to a flame, with similar results. Equal opposites attract each other and, having done so, remain locked in each other’s orbit forever. Whatever perversion attracted Alois Trancy to Ciel, the attraction was mutual, equal, and opposite. And so Ciel decided to play Alois’ game to its conclusion.

Alois bounded through the bedroom door, twirled himself across the room, and threw himself on to the bed, sprawled across it in the most vulnerable position he could think of. It all seemed so impulsive, but Ciel knew better. Both boys were alike in many ways, but most importantly, both were strategists. A day with Alois was like a game of chess in which the pieces moved unconstrained by rules toward an objective known only to Alois.

“Where are my clothes, Alois? And where is your butler?” Ciel stood with the pillow held in front and his back firmly against the wall lest Alois try to take further liberties.

“Claude?” Alois laughed as though Ciel had just told him a mildly funny joke. “Oh, Claude won’t dress you. He never dresses me - only undresses.”

Alois’ voice trailed off as if lost in the twists and turns of his own mind. Then he was back as brightly as ever. Suddenly kneeling on the bed excitedly, Alois exclaimed, “I know! I can pretend to be your butler, and I’ll dress you!”

“No,” Ciel said flatly.

“It’s the only way you’ll get your clothes back. Only I know where they are, and apparently, only I know how to put them on you. I did take them off you, after all.”

“WHAT?” Ciel was shouting and gesturing immodestly with both hands now. “You abducted me here, took all of my clothes, and slept with me in your bed? What else have you done with me?” Ciel’s pale skin burned red, visible not only on his face but all over his body.

Alois licked his lips, which belied his answer. “Nothing.” Ciel watched as Alois stood and then bowed, gesturing toward his former spot on the bed. 

“My Lord,” said Alois officiously. Without seeming to care whether Ciel took his spot on the bed or remained where he was, Alois walked to the floor mirror and removed his coat. Having folded it neatly, he then calmly unbuttoned and removed his shirt, hanging it carefully on the finial atop one side of the mirror. Next came the laced shoes, slowly and deliberately unlaced and set perfectly at the corner of the bed, one sock draped over the top of each.

Alois was uncharacteristically demure as he shed his clothing. While unpredictable and capricious, Alois always managed to fill the air with seeming nonsense that a careful listener might decipher to understand the boy’s intentions. In silence, he was inscrutable, and Ciel hated this.

“What are you doing, Alois? One moment, I would gladly contract with another demon in exchange for a moment of your silence.” Ciel eyed Alois with equal measures of curiosity and distrust. “The next moment, I find myself wishing for more of your infernally incessant babble.”

Alois gestured again toward the bed. “My Lord, I have prepared your clothes for today.”

“Those are your clothes, not mine. What have you done with my clothes?”

“Night clothes in daytime?” Alois retorted while remaining in character. “No, a proper gentleman requires a proper outfit, of which we have only one.”

There was a certain inescapable logic to this. Anyway, Ciel found enjoyment in imagining Alois to be his servant and in Alois willfully playing that role. Once again, rather than call an end to the game, Ciel decided to play along, more for his own satisfaction than for whatever amusement it gave Alois. He sat on the bed where Alois had indicated.

“Fine. Then dress me now, but fetch my morning tea first,” Ciel commanded. 

Alois knelt at Ciel’s bare feet, and his eyes followed the curve of Ciel’s smooth legs from his toes upward, but only halfway to Ciel’s eyes. “Yes, my Lord.”

“Oh, and you may keep the coat for yourself,” Ciel called after Alois who was already skipping out of the room to find a small cup of tea in a very large estate.


	2. His Butler, Alois Trancy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ciel attempts his escape but doesn't get very far.

Ciel went to the door and watched Alois proceed down the long hallway, delicately placing one foot directly in front of the other along the joints between floorboards as though walking an imaginary tightrope like a younger child might do. Ciel found this to be executed every bit as adorably as if Alois were in fact a younger child, but he dared not give his mind full voice to that, even only in his own thoughts. Once Alois finally disappeared down the steps at the end of the hall, Ciel retreated back into the room. In his own house - in his own bedroom - a set of doors opened onto a balcony from which he might be able to descend and make his escape. If this was a perfect replica, then those doors would be the means of his escape. 

He cast a glance at the clothing now laid out neatly for him. Alois would return soon enough with the tea that Ciel requested but did not want, and he would expect to continue his pretense at serving as Ciel's butler. But to what end? No, a Trancy butler is his master's keeper, but the queen's guard dog is kept only at his leisure.

"The top mission of a prisoner is escape, not modesty," Ciel said to himself as he quickly refocused on his task. Drawing aside the tall drapes that Sebastian would close every night and open every morning like clockwork, he found the balcony just as it should be. Peering through the window panes, Ciel remarked that the view was different from his own room. This meant that there were limits to Claude's artifice. Or perhaps there were limits on the degree to which the demon was bound to carry out his master's commands. Either way, seams were showing in Ciel's current reality, and seams can be pried at.

"No doubt, the doors will be locked," he thought as he turned both crystalline glass doorknobs at once. To his amazement, they turned easily. Ciel pulled. The doors swung open, allowing a blast of cold winter air to rush in. Despite the cold, Ciel wasted no time. Pulling down the drapes that had covered the doors, he tied the ends together and then tied a free end to the balcony. Two drapes standing ceiling to floor should be long enough when placed end to end to nearly reach the ground two stories below, even when accounting for the material used in knotting them. Entwining the drapery around his arm, he lowered himself slowly, but nearly past the halfway point, Ciel heard a playful laugh below him. 

"What a fun house guest you are, Ciel." There, looking up without a single concern for his guest's modesty was Alois, his high collared coat protecting his nape from the cold, even as it utterly failed to shield his otherwise bare skin against the chill wind. "Most exit via the front door, but you've no doubt found a much more adventurous route! Shall I bring your tea down here then? Perhaps I can descend the drapery with one hand while holding your tea in the other!” Alois giggled while miming the motion of carrying a delicate teacup and saucer while swinging precariously from a rope.

"The front door?" To say that Ciel was irritable now would be an understatement. He was cold, angry, keenly aware of his compromising position, and now he felt distinctly as though Alois was mocking him. “Alois, you donkey! Do you mean to say that I've been free to go...?"

"Via the door?" Alois completed Ciel's question while laughing hysterically at being called a donkey. "Of course. I'm not your jailer, but you did say I could be your friend.” 

“We agreed only that you could pretend to be my butler. There was nothing said about friendship," Ciel corrected him harshly.

A rare and fleeting depth of sorrow crept into Alois' eyes as Ciel spoke, even if the childish grin never fully left his face. This stirred a perhaps rarer but equally fleeting sense of empathy in Ciel. Neither boy was any good at being particularly likable, Alois because he tried too much and Ciel because he tried too little. Here, Ciel’s words had accidentally scratched Alois deeply enough to reveal a glimpse of the boy beneath - the real boy who bartered friendships while masquerading as Alois Trancy, obscuring his sadness and isolation with silly grins and inane banter. To Ciel, it seemed that Alois Trancy was a jailer after all, but not his jailer.

In any event, there was nothing to be done about it. Neither boy was whole, and neither could complete the other, so empathy was as unprofitable as denying one’s own identity.

"If you wish me to be your master, then I command you to get me down from here." Ciel was as firm and commanding as ever, but also disappointed in his own weakness. As master to Sebastian, Ciel was entirely dependent on him for food, protection, and even clothing. Now, suspended halfway between the balcony and the ground with the return climb beyond his ability, he could not even play at being master to Alois without also being dependent upon him.

Smiling broadly, Alois bowed deeply and placed his right hand over his heart. "Yes, my Lord." Reaching up, he encouraged Ciel to fall into his arms, catching him before he had fallen too far and then holding him tightly against his body, slowing Ciel's fall to a gradual slide until he was safely on the ground. Ciel felt embarrassment at having every part of his body so intimately exposed and in contact with Alois' body as he was lowered to the ground. More precisely, he felt embarrassment at his body's involuntary response to this and sought to hide it by lingering in his new butler's arms longer than anyone thought customary. 

Ciel loved the surprising warmth of Alois' arms which proved a suitable if inferior substitute for Sebastian's. 

Ciel loved the feeling of Alois’ heartbeat against his chest, a reminder that Alois was more alive and more like himself than Sebastian could ever be.

Ciel loved the feeling of Alois' small hands as they stroked his back, something which he would allow for all eternity if possible.

Ciel convinced himself that the cold air made these sensations seem warmer only by comparison and only in this moment - a sort of hypothermic delusion.

Fully engaged in his role as butler, Alois chivalrously slipped off his coat and slung it around his new master. Impulsively, he kissed Ciel's head so tenderly that Ciel scarcely knew that he had been kissed by anything more than warm sunlight. "Come on, Ciel. I fear your tea will be nearly as cold as you are by now. I'm sure there are oodles of fun things we can do to warm ourselves inside. And then when you tire of our games, you may hurl yourself from any balcony you like!." With this, Alois hurried off with Ciel in tow back into the house, cheerfully ordering fresh hot tea and warm breakfast as he passed by Claude at the door.

Ciel held Alois' coat modestly in front of himself as he approached the door, but he did not avert his eyes from the demon butler. Claude's gloved hand no doubt carried the mark of the contract between him and Alois. It would be the same mark that Alois bore upon his tongue - similar but unlike the mark Sebastian had seared into Ciel's eye. Ciel wondered if it carried less power when placed upon the tongue. The more visible, the greater the power of the contract seal between demon and master, but Ciel kept his eye covered while Alois seemed pathologically unable to restrain his tongue within his mouth for even a moment of silence.

Claude did not acknowledge the order from his master. In fact, he did not acknowledge his master's presence at all. Rather, his gaze remained fixed and unblinking upon Ciel as he approached. It was not the look of a stag preparing to battle a lone wolf, confident in its superiority. A stag is, after all, still prey no matter how powerful it may be. No, his was the look of the lone wolf, hungry and observant for a moment of weakness in which to strike. 

"And why would a demon wear glasses?" Ciel wondered. Rather than clarify, they seemed intended only to obscure. 

Speaking now directly to Claude, Ciel commanded, "I do not wish to be stared at so hungrily! I shall have my revenge, and then Sebastian shall have my soul, and then the birds will have my body. Until then, they are mine to do with as I wish." Then stepping across the threshold, Ciel and butler faced each other, bare toe to immaculately shined dress shoe, "Now your master requests hot tea and warm breakfast. That is an order!"

Kneeling, Claude replied, "Yes, my Lord," which Ciel thought very odd.


	3. His Butler, Hidden in Plain Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alois shares some profound thoughts, and Ciel deduces the truth from his tea.

The two boys warmed themselves by the fireplace in the grand parlor while awaiting their breakfast. The fire burned continuously without tending and without abatement - different, Ciel thought, from the fire that killed his parents. Even that fire had ended finally once it had consumed everything Ciel had ever known or cared about. But this fire was not the same. In Alois Trancy's fireplace, the fire that warmed them was demonic and seemingly eternal. Despite requiring no tending, it did not rage out of control. Instead it simply existed, purposeful and without malice. If it could be made to kill, then its purpose would be corrupted. The fire that haunted Ciel's thoughts, by contrast, was like all things created by humans. It was finite, uncontrolled, imperfect, and therefore capable of killing. 

"Are you listening, Ciel?" Alois intruded upon Ciel's contemplation. He had been chatting away for some time from one end of the divan, hugging his knees while still managing to animate his legs as he spoke, oblivious to Ciel's reverie. "I fear I may have to repeat everything I've said so that you might have a second chance at hearing it. What have you been thinking?"

"That men have no business toying with fire if they can't get it right," Ciel replied somewhat bitterly. He answered this question only in the hope that he might avoid having to actually listen to whatever Alois had been saying.

Alois laughed. "Is that all? Nearly thirty minutes in thought, and all you've come up with is the patently obvious?" 

If it was possible for Ciel to give Alois a hateful look without averting his eyes from the fire, he managed to do just that. Until this point, Alois had given Ciel his distance, leaving him to sit properly, feet on the floor at the other end of the divan. But now, he laid himself out, resting his head on Ciel's lap. At another time, Ciel might have been alarmed or even angered by this, but now perhaps he had grown accustomed to Alois' spontaneity. Perhaps he even found it endearing. At the very least, he was resigned to it although he did struggle with the question of what to do with his arm besides rest it on Alois. He settled on extending it downward somewhat uncomfortably behind his own back, leaving himself in an amusingly awkward position.

"Oh Ciel," Alois continued, looking up at his hands as his fingers traced the intricate patterns in the ceiling. "I only mean that a fire can do more than consume things. It can remake them too. Fires that consume are commonplace. Any old fire can burn things down, but fires that remake things are special. They require craftsmen."

Ciel looked down at Alois with surprise that such a well-formed thought which lives so fleetingly in Alois' head could find its way intact out of his mouth. Alois suddenly tilted his head back, catching Ciel's eye, as though he had just had another thought.

"It's like what they say when you're falling in love, isn't it, that your heart is on fire?" He reached over and placed his hand on Ciel's heart. "That means when you're in love and want to be loved in return, your heart is in danger of either being destroyed or remade."

At this, Ciel pushed Alois away. "You take too many liberties, Alois!"

"And your opinion of yourself takes up too much space! Otherwise, I might be able to keep greater distance!" Alois turned and sat with folded arms, his back propped up against Ciel's shoulder as he said this.

Ciel turned to Alois and glared at the back of his head. Indeed, physical contact was akin to affection, which Ciel would only tolerate on his own terms. Ciel was very much like a cat in this way. Perhaps that was why Sebastian who was so enchanted by cats of all kinds also found him so deeply enchanting. Perhaps it was also why Ciel tolerated forms of affection from Sebastian that he would not tolerate from anyone else. 

But affection was not love. In Ciel, the voids that were previously filled by his parents' love were now filled with the anger that motivated a hunger for revenge so ravenous that he would contract with a demon to satisfy it. In Alois, the voids that were previously filled by his brother's love were now filled with a sorrow so deep that he would cling to a demon to avoid drowning in it. Ciel had no desire for the love that Alois so desperately needed to survive. His anger and thirst for revenge were the only reason he was still alive. He was able to put none of this into words for Alois.

"Mine is full size. Yours may be too small by comparison." Alois took this response as being charitable and kind which brought a rare half-smile to Ciel's face. 

At that moment, Claude emerged finally with a tray of teas and breakfast items and a similarly bemused expression. Demurely, he poured a cup of tea first for Alois. To it, he added two cubes of sugar and an eighth of cream. Then for the guest, he poured the tea black and added a single twist of lemon. Handing the second to Ciel first and the first to Alois second, Claude then proceeded to prepare two identical breakfast plates consisting of smoked salmon soufflé, stewed figs, and a beetroot winter salad.

"Shall I assist Master Ciel with his attire after breakfast?" Claude asked this with a slight bow as he set one of the plates down in front of their houseguest. A waiter might have set the plate imprecisely or even harshly and almost certainly rotated such that it would have required turning to the proper angle for eating. On the other hand, a butler worth his salt sets plates as Claude did - silently and at a proper distance, turned appropriately for both function and aesthetics. 

To his question, both Ciel and Alois replied at once in the negative, Ciel because his pride required that he depend solely upon himself in Sebastian's absence, and Alois because he had not forgotten the arrangement they had made earlier.

"I am perfectly capable of dressing myself assuming that I have my wardrobe available to me," Ciel said.

"But you said I could be your butler," Alois objected. "I even gave you my own clothes in which, I should say, you might be mistaken for me if only you were somewhat taller and sufficiently handsomer. Surely, you'll still keep your word?"

Ciel sighed. It was the lot of the Phantomhives to consort with criminals and other lowlife to fulfill their duty to the Queen. If a Phantomhive could not be taken for his word at all times, then there was nothing to distinguish him from those who act dishonorably in darkness. "Yes, I did give my word, and I will keep it," he replied. Then to Claude, he said, "Alois will dress me if he so desires, immediately after breakfast." This last part came more as a command than as a statement.

"Very good," said Claude. "Dressing oneself is a trivial matter, better left to servants. Trivialities are mere distractions unless they are a means to an end." Here, Claude's words seemed to continue only in his mind as he calmly poured fresh cups of tea.

Alois was exasperated now. "For goodness' sake, Claude. A dog barks with greater meaning. Perhaps you should replace your large words with twice as many smaller words if you wish to be understood." Ciel thought it was presumptuous of Alois to lecture anyone on clarity of message, but on further reflection, he found no flaw in how Alois spoke. The flaw was always in what he spoke. The message itself was generally flawed from the start. 

Claude responded without missing a beat. "Still, free will can be exercised only in trivialities. The contract that binds me and continues your existence was entered according to your own free will. It is only a triviality. But one does not choose to exist or to love, and I am sure you will agree that existence and love are not trivial at all. It is only through the trivial matter of our contract that your will to exist takes form and has effect." 

Ciel wondered briefly as he stared into his teacup why the topic of love had come up again. He had entered into his contract freely for revenge. In this, love was only an unnecessary distraction. It was Alois who so desperately wanted to be loved. Was that why he had entered into his contract with his demon? When Alois would finally find the love he wanted, would his soul be eaten in that very instant, rendering that love useless? Were the seemingly trivial games Alois played actually means to non-trivial ends? But other thoughts also jockeyed for attention in Ciel's quick mind. Without shifting his gaze from the teacup, he gave one of those thoughts his voice. "Tell me, Claude, do all demons know precisely how I prefer my tea?"

There are instants in time when known truths become lies and expectations melt into reality. In those moments, the subconscious mind reaches out for that which over time has been the most stable ground upon which it can gain the most solid footing. Alois understood immediately what Ciel already knew. He leaped from the table with shock, knocking over his chair in the process and staggered backward shouting, "Hannah!" Meanwhile, Ciel quietly enjoyed another sip of his tea.


End file.
